One in five sellers is achieving more than the asking price, according to the NAEA.

Reporting for last month, it says the supply of houses has dropped 27% over a year to just 44 properties per branch.

Buyers have been forced to increase their offers to beat off competition and secure their property.

The proportion of properties sold for more than the asking price in May at 19% is almost three times the 7% recorded when NAEA first collected this data last September.

Although 46% of sellers accepted lower offers than their asking price, this compared with 71% last September.

NAEA member agents also reported an increase in the average number of sales agreed per branch, up from nine in April to ten in May.

Mark Hayward, NAEA managing director, said: “With limited numbers of houses for sale, unfortunately it means that those who simply can’t afford to increase their original offer will often be priced out the market.

“With current speculation of the interest rate rising, we could see more owners putting their houses on the market in a panic that house prices may reduce as a result of interest rate and mortgage rate hikes.

“However, the new Mortgage Market Review (MMR) rules may create ‘mortgage prisoners’ who cannot gain new mortgages for house moves, resulting in a slowdown of house sales, and this coupled with recent sharp rises in house prices could start to take some of the strongest heat out of the property market.”

* According to the Council of Mortgage Lenders, £16.5bn was lent in May – the same as April, although 12% up on last year.

The CML said there was evidence of a slowdown in activity, with implementation of the MMR having disrupted normal levels of activity.